Yamamoto said: ?óÔé¼?ôI am pleased to work with Marussia Virgin Racing in Australia.

“I really appreciate them giving me a chance to be here. The team has made a big step forward this year and I believe that I can contribute to their car development through my experience.

“As everyone is aware it is a very difficult time in Japan right now and any good news is much welcomed. I hope the people back home will feel positive about my latest F1 role as I would like to do everything possible to help them.”

49 comments on Yamamoto joins Virgin as reserve driver

I really think this is what Japan needs to help their country get back into shape.
Yamamoto in a reserve driver role in Virgin Racing. How exciting is that? I am really look forward to look at him hanging around in the garage in some Virgin branded clothes.

Seriously though if he really wants to do anything he can to help the people in Japan why not stop paying F1 teams to let you hang out in their motor home and get back and spend some of the money to help people instead.

To a degree i can see the sense in Virgin doing this. They’ve taken on a driver with experiance of driving a ‘current’ F1 car as cover for an existing driver.
If the Bahrain race had take place Timo wouldn’t have been available leaving them with just d’Ambrosio who hasn’t raced. I can’t think of many other alternatives to Yamamoto, may be Grosjean or de la Rosa?